Westbrook unquestionably has an accomplished barrel program, but what about those obscure offerings off the beaten path? I cant recall many breweries just crushing a barrel aged roggenbier out of the park, so the intent at the outset is noble.

The beer pours with ample carb that clings spotting the glass with streamers of sticky webs. The khaki cap maintains a frothy stickiness atop the mahogany srm.

The nose is moderately sweet at the outset and reminds me of the waft of Dr Pepper syrup, prunes, plums, Carmelized raisins, and bruised peaches. It doesn’t have a cleanliness to the closer nor does it feel exceedingly “spicy” from the rye profile like you get in beers like Rugbrod or boulevard rye on rye, a far better beer.

The taste follows the sticky nose with a sweet melted molasses and sugar daddies, the foregoing dark fruits and figs are present and this beer improved as it warms but never becomes amazing. It is by no means a bad beer, and represents an ambitious attempt at hazarding something different from the well worn ba old ale/ba barleywine frontier. For that alone I can tip my trilby m’lady but just doing something different itself alone doesn’t make it novel. Go watch Enter the Void if you want a three hour example of that kinda shit.

Should you try it? Sure. Should you ISO this hard and pull your nips for it? I am not here to tell you how to live your life. Maybe this will fill that crushing emptiness in life, rye sugar water that serves to bolster the confidence needed to ask to be promoted to assistant manager of Arby’s. Who knows. Get your grind on, if you got that gold tank then you clearly know No Limit.